JOHN 18:1-19:42

Jottings on John…Good Friday…2019

Today’s Gospel is so vast it seems unwise to try to cover, or preach, more that a modicum, but choose to highlight one aspect. I’m for choosing ‘Truth’.

With OZ facing a Federal election in a month’s time, & politicians & churches having a pretty bad press on the whole, why not remind our flock Jesus is the Victim of hard-line Politicians & Religionists, both. Would Jesus willingly have voted for any camp, politically, if He had a vote! Would He be found in any of our churches, except to stir the things-of-God up a bit as we often see Him doing in synagogues in the Gospels?  

 To try to bring all this together, the entry point I suggest is emphasising that the fact of Jesus being God’s Truth is an uncomfortable Truth, take that where God wills us to take it in our preaching. When we settle for ‘alternative truths’ over Truth with a T in the Person of Jesus, we’re aligning ourselves with Pilate, the Chief Priest, & their cronies & how they see things, rather than with God & God’s Way of seeing things. 

Truth goes to the heart of Jesus' mission & kingship. At the beginning of His ministry, Jesus has had to wrestle out in the wilderness to test the Truth of Who He is; what kind of Messiah He’s to be. He’s been tempted to hand Himself over to devilish ways but discerns there’s no Truth in that direction.

Pilate doesn’t ‘get’ Jesus. “You’re not really a king, are you?” he asks. (Try saying that using differing inflections!) When Jesus replies, “You’re the one saying I am”, Pilate’s response is,“You don’t look like a king to me!” Is this still many people’s response to Jesus today? Do we ‘get’ Jesus any better than Pilate & Co? Pilate can’t see the God in Jesus. When is a king not a king?’ Let’s ask our flocks “What is it about Jesus that puzzles us?” Why does He puzzle us - if he does?

Is there any other way to help anyone, inside or outside the church, puzzling over Jesus’ kind of kingship except by our living out the puzzling Truth of His Kingship? So they can see Jesus living God out in us, and ‘get’ it! Get Him! Get God!

Jesus tells Pilate, “Everyone who belongs to the Truth can hear my voice”, echoing what He’s earlier said to antagonistic fellow Jews [8:47]. When Pilate refuses to change the wording over Jesus’ cross, is this Truth-about-Jesus question still bother-ing him? How much does it really bother us today?

Brian

Afterthought: Jesus, nailed to His cross, is the Essence of the non-negotiable Truth of God. He puts the seal on that in His last words before He dies. Let’s not settle for the tame, ‘It’s finished’, or ‘It’s over’, kind of translation. Jesus is saying, & means, “I’ve done it!” “I’ve brought it off!” And that’s God’s Truth! Now it’s our turn to live that Truth by His Spirit.